Health: 1 apple a day avoids 8.500 deaths per year in studio Gb - Focus

Milan, December 18 (Reuters) – If the over 50 ate an apple a day, you could reduce the death toll of heart attacks and strokes. The new ode to the apple ‘life-saving’, a natural source of antioxidants and chemical compounds called flavonoids, comes from the UK. A team of researchers from the University of Oxford publish it on the ‘British Medical Journal’ an estimate of how many deaths could be avoided by following the rule of the apple daily, magnified by ancient sayings. According to scientists at the UK could save 8,500 deaths a year due to heart attacks and strokes. This is because the apples would give support to cardiovascular health similar to that provided by medications such as statins, without any side effects.

The assumption is based on a model, not a scientific study directly. Any fruit should work in this way but, experts explain, motivate people to follow this ‘prescription’ daily could be a challenge, given that, according to a survey suggests the UK population, more than two-thirds of adults do not consume the 5 daily servings of fruits and vegetables recommended. And even if 9 out of 10 people fail to arrive at the most to one serving per day, the scientist Adam Briggs and his colleagues in the research group of the British Hearth Foundation Health Promotion at the University of Oxford are keen to stress that increasing the consumption of fruit and vegetables, it is possible to derive all the benefits in terms of health. According to the researchers’ calculations, if adults of all ages were able to eat an extra portion of fruit or vegetables a day, year after year about 11 000 vascular deaths could be prevented.

That’s why experts dusted off the old mantra: “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” And indicate the particular importance of the golden rule for those over 50, who are most at risk of cardiovascular disease. The researchers, for this age group, they analyzed the effect on the most common causes of vascular mortality – heart attacks and strokes – is a statin to lower cholesterol per day that an apple a day. Assuming that at least 7 out of 10 follow the recommendations, according to their calculations statins would save 9,400 lives a year and 8,500 daily apple. The data are based on a job that has ricompreso a wide range of studies and observations of hundreds of thousands of patients. Even science, therefore, promotes the ancient proverb. “A clear and simple advice of public health,” says Briggs, with a moral: “Small changes in diet can be effective.”